Like Venezuela, the Islamic Republic defies Washington in choosing its president
US President Donald Trump’s attempt at a “regime change” in Iran has failed, the Islamic republic’s Assembly of Experts having appointed the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei its new Supreme Leader on Sunday.
Iran’s state media said Mojtaba Khamenei has replaced his father who was killed last February 28 in the first wave of US and Israel missile attacks.
The Islamic country said that after careful and extensive studies, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei is appointed and introduced as their third leader.
Iran said the decision was “based on the decisive vote of the respected representatives of the Assembly of Experts.”
It is an unprecedented appointment as it is the first time since its monarchy was deposed in 1979 that a descendant of an immediate past Islamic leader had been elevated to Iran’s top leadership.
Mojtaba had been cited by observes to be a potential successor to his father, partly due to close ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, its powerful primary military force.
Predictably, Trump did not welcome the news, telling American media outlet ABC News on Sunday, “If he doesn’t get approval from us, he’s not going to last long.”
Earlier, Israel also threatened to target whoever was chosen.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said that the Iranian people, not Donald Trump, will elect their new leader.
“We allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs. This is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader,” Aragchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Instead, Iran’s top diplomat said, Trump “should apologise to people of the region and the Iranian people for the killings and destruction they have done against us.”
Trump’s failure followed his failed attempt at another “regime change” in Venezuela after his government’s abduction of Venezuela’s president Nicholas Maduro last January.
Maduro’s vice president Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president instead of Washington ally María Corina Machado.
Rodriguez vowes vowed to defend national sovereignty, declaring that Venezuela “will never be a colony of any nation.” # (Raymund B. Villanueva)